1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oil pan which acts as an oil reservoir disposed in a lower part of an internal combustion engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various oil pans like such an oil pan are proposed in, for example, JP-U 57-66211 A. The interior of the previously proposed oil pan is divided into a deep bottom space, namely, a lowermost space, and a shallow bottom space, by a baffle plate disposed near the boundary between a deep-bottom section and a shallow-bottom section. The baffle plate regulates the flow of the oil between the deep bottom space and the shallow bottom space. Particularly, the flow of the oil from the deep bottom space into the shallow bottom space is regulated such that an amount of the oil not smaller than a predetermined amount is always reserved in the deep bottom space so that the oil can be surely pumped up from the bottom of the deep bottom space.
The previously proposed oil pan is provided with a separate baffle plate attached to a part of an oil pan body near the boundary between the deep-bottom section and the shallow-bottom section.
Openings are provided in a base part of the baffle plate joined to the oil pan body. The oil pan body and the baffle plate need to be manufactured individually, the oil pan is built by joining the baffle plate to the oil pan body, and the openings need to be formed in the baffle plate. Thus the oil pan has many component members, and requires many man-hours and much cost to manufacture the same.
The shape of oil pans has become complicated in recent years. Consequently, the number of the component parts of oil pans, and man-hours needed to manufacture oil pans, have progressively increased.